John Cleese on Creativity

I just watched this video and thought I would share it. John Cleese gives an excellent speech on creativity. Often In photography, art, music or anything creative we hear that so-and-so has talent, it's natural, it can not be learned, you either have it-- or you don't. In this video John Cleese says that "Creativity is not a talent.It is not a talent, it is a way of operating. You see when I say "a way of operating" what I mean is this: creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is, for example, (and this may surprise you) absolutely unrelated to IQ (provided that you are intelligent above a certain minimal level that is) but MacKinnon showed in investigating scientists, architects, engineers, and writers that those regarded by their peers as "most creative" were in no way whatsoever different in IQ from their less creative colleagues. So in what way were they different? MacKinnon showed that the most creative had simply acquired a facility for getting themselves into a particular mood -- "a way of operating" -- which allowed their natural creativity to function."